First of all, I don't think that Uriah Heep is a group easy to define. It's hard rock / 70's metal, of course, but if not in a general music website is hard to find a source of info about this equally loved and hated band. Though absolutely no prog I love to find them in ProgArchives.

What do you think of Ken Hensley? I can't imagine a true Heep album without him. Modern Heep is a good live band, and that's all. But when you see the frst Magician's Birthday Party show you feel the brilliance of this man. I truly miss David Byron and love John Lawton's voice, but more and more I think that Hensley was THE key to the magic of Uriah Heep.

I finished right now of listening to his last album - "Blood on the highway". It's a wonderful hard'n'heavy album, with the fantastic Jorn Lande (who I didn't know before), Glenn Hughes and Lawton. What do you think of his solo career and his work with Heep? Any chance of the Lawton era Heep (minus Lee, it seems) to work together again?

Well I take issue with the idea that they are 'absolutely not prog'. 'Salisbury', 'The Park', 'Wake Up Set Your Sights', 'Shadows Of Grief', 'July Morning', 'Paradise/The Spell', 'Echoes In The Dark', 'Blind Eye', 'Pilgrim', 'Circus', 'Dreams', 'Beautiful Dream', 'Return To Fantasy', 'Midnight', 'Footprints In The Snow', 'Firefly', 'Illusion/Masquerade', 'No Return', 'Love In Silence', 'Logical Progression', 'Between Two Worlds', 'Question/Change' and 'The Golden Palace', to name but a few, all put paid to that idea, imho.

I think the critical battering the band took is a little less prevalent now. Very much looking forward to their forthcoming album- I've heard a minute preview of a track via their website and it sounds brilliant.

I started out buying just the albums with David Byron, but then I heard 'Firefly' (the best of the Lawton albums by miles, imho) and 'Sea Of Light' from 1995 or so and realised how blinkered I'd been. If I was going to recommend a fan of the classic 70s albums one album, it would be 'Sea Of Light'. 'Sonic Origami' is a few songs too long and the production is a lot slicker but there are many excellent songs there too. I would say those albums saw them find their way again- I'm not so wild about the 80s albums (rather too much like Foreigner/JLT era Rainbow, imho).

I picked up Ken's album 'Blood On The Highway' a while back and it is rather good, yes. Some moments I'm not so keen on- notably the schmaltzy Barry Manilow style ballad 'I Did It All'- but mostly excellent songs. Now, this album is definitely not prog for sure, but is probably the rockiest I've heard from Ken. Jorn Lande is very like David Coverdale, imho.

I know Ken's other albums 'Proud Words On A Dusty Shelf', 'Eager To Please' and 'Free Spirit'. 'Free Spirit' is weaker, but the other two are very fine singer-songwriter albums.

Since I heard Uriah Heep Live when I was at about 14 years old, I am a (Seventies) Uriah Heep fan, especially the way of Hammond playing by Ken Hensley is often very compelling. A few years ago I witnessed a gig by Ken Hensley solo in Zoetemeer (near The Hague, Holland), he blew away every proghead (all 40+ ) in the crowd with his Uriah Heep renditions and during the extended version of Gypsy, the crowd freaked out, what a mighty and propulsive Hammond waves, including a long and sensational solo

Like Everybody else, a young KEN HENSLEY was great in his prime with URIAH HEEP, then after SWEET FREEDOM, inspiration and creativity dried up badly and you got the not so ''WONDERWORLD'' and not so great follwing albums (except HIGH AND MIGHTY).

The fact that he left UH after ''fallen angel'' didn't make URIAH HEEP worse; it was already vey bad. even with him at the helm.

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